Jerusalem, 3 March, 2026 (TPS-IL) — The Ministry of Health published guidelines for operating in vitro fertilization units during the ongoing conflict with Iran. According to the guidelines in units where there is full protection of the operating room, recovery room, and laboratory, normal activities can continue depending on the availability of personnel – all while paying attention to situations in which staff and patients will have difficulty reaching the hospital due to the security situation.
In units where there is no full protection, the unit director, in consultation with the laboratory director, will decide every day on the continuation of activity in accordance with the Ministry of Health guidelines. This decision should take into account the degree of protection of the various areas in the unit – operating rooms, recovery rooms, and the laboratory, and the staffing situation, especially the embryologists.
According to the guidelines, urgent actions such as fertility preservation should be performed before gonadotoxic treatment (treatment that may harm fertility in the future) for patients and cancer patients, and it is also necessary to continue treatment in women in advanced stages of ovarian stimulation, to the extent that stopping treatment may lead to significant side effects, as well as to continue treatment in women with a poor ovarian response.
It was determined that a decision whether to perform fertilization or alternatively freeze the eggs would be made on a daily basis depending on the manpower in the laboratory. The guidelines also state that ovarian stimulation cycles for egg retrieval can be initiated in women aged 38 and over.